The date of my 3rd blogiversary hit me by surprise this year. (Honestly, I’d totally forgotten about it!) I was doing a little site maintenance last week and noticed the date of my first post – November 29th. Right away, I knew what I wanted to do – show some of my favorite photos of the last three years but there was no way to weed through more than 2,500 images in two days and decide which ones to use.
I registered my blog about 3 years before I started blogging. Even though I was traveling, I couldn’t seem to get the writing part going. That is, until two of my friends and I made it to southern Africa. Three weeks in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Lesotho and I returned with so many wonderful and memorable experiences, I could hear myself telling the same stories over and over. I needed a medium that would allow me to share my stories and photos – my usual travel journal wouldn’t do. Then I remembered the blog I registered and never used.
Shortly after I returned home, I looked up my blog, downloaded my photos – almost 1000 images – and began writing. Surprisingly, the words flowed and even more surprisingly, they haven’t stopped.
My blog and I have grown considerably since those first tentative moments three years ago. I’ve met and befriended readers and bloggers and can proudly say there’s no group more supportive. It is because of you that this 3rd blogiversary is possible.
In Take One, I’ll go back to where it started – that trip to southern Africa. We visited Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Victoria Falls and Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, and Sani Pass, Lesotho.
If you can only visit two continents in your lifetime, visit Africa. TWICE! – R. Elliott
Entrance to Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls RainbowVictoria FallsLunchtime at Makalolo Plains, Hwange National Park, ZimbabweLone bull elephant at Mbisa, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe
Hwange Elephant
Zebras
Giraffe
A lioness too full to move
Elephants playing at a watering hole, Hwange National Park
Elephants and Cape Buffalo, Hwange National Park
Mandela House, SowetoIconic Soweto WatertowersView from Table Mountain, Cape TownTable Mountain TableclothJackass Penguins at Boulders Beach, Cape TownVineyard, Stellenbosch, Cape TownM’hudi Wines’ Oupa Rangaka
On the ferry to Robben Island
Mandela’s Robben Island cell
The bars that couldn’t hold him
Overcome by emotion
Photo of Mandela on a banner at Victor Verster Prison
Mandela statue outside Victor Verser Prison
Durban trees
With the chief
Replica of a Zulu kraal
Zulu hut, Zululand
Zulu girls
Zulu woman and child
The dance
It’s my turn, Zululand
Sani Pass Hotel
Sani Pass, Drakensberg Mountains
Sani Pass, Drakensberg Mountains
Sani Pass Switchback, Drakensberg Mountains
Rock Paintings, Drakensberg Mtns
The other way to get up the mountain
Drakensberg Mountain
At 9000 ft, Sani Pass, Lesotho
Lunch at the Highest Pub in Africa
I had the Gluhwein
My lunch at the Highest Pub in Africa
Durban RickshawMorning on the Golden Mile, Durban
Some of the people we met…
Hotel worker, Durban
Our travel agents, Durban
A braai
With Thandiwe Klaasen, a SA jazz singer & Mercy, a dancer
Teachers at Peter Claver
Students at Peter Claver School
with the Prince
The Irreverent Sister at Mama Africa
With Lebo, M’Hudi Wines
With Prince Charles, Giant’s Castle guide
With Don, our tour guide
It’s been a while since I saw some of these photos so that made it even more difficult to decide what to include. But it was great looking back at the wonderful time we had.
I still keep in touch with several of the people we met in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The first time I visited Africa, a friend told me it would change my life. It took the second visit for it to happen.
Coming up tomorrow, Take 2: London, Paris, Toronto, and New York.
Linking up this week with Travel Photo Thursday, which Nancie at Budget Travelers Sandbox organizes. Be sure to head over and check out more photos from locations around the world.
A year ago, I decided to take WordPress’ challenge to Postaday2011. I made the decision without even thinking about it. The next day, I wondered whether I could really hang in for the long haul and post every day, 365 days, for a year.
The first month or so was pretty easy. I had returned from a life altering two weeks of travel in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Lesotho and had what felt like an endless amount of information to share. As a matter of fact, that’s what motivated me to take my blogging more seriously.
After I finished reporting on that trip, I had no other travels scheduled. The challenge then became how to find new and interesting things to post about.
WordPress Annual Report for InsideJourneys
Since music and food are such big parts of my travel experience, I decided to feature a weekly food post that I called Tasty Thursdays and Soulful Sundays. I suspended Tasty Thursday and joined Budget Travelers Sandbox’s Travel Photo Thursday.
WordPress helped by suggesting topics I could write about. They also introduced the Weekly Photo Challenge, which gave me a chance to feature some of my photos. It also offered a ‘break’ from writing.
The one thing I’ve come to love about blogging is how fluid it can be. The people I started with have stopped or moved on to different things. I’ve joined different communities and met other bloggers, all fabulous people who share timely, fun, insightful posts. I hope you’ll stop by their blog and check them out. I promise, you won’t be disappointed.
While I was posting every day, WordPress was keeping track. I was surprised to get an email from them with a review of 2011. Unfortunately, they had only my first 159 posts as by mid-year, I had switched to a self-hosted blog.
For 2012, I’ve decided not to post everyday though I haven’t decided how frequently I will post. Not posting every day will give me time to travel and time to do other things, like read and comment on the blogs that I’ve subscribed.
I hope you will continue this journey with me in 2012.
Today, InsideJourneys, is celebrating its first anniversary. A year ago, I wrote my first post. Since then, I’ve written many more and most importantly, made several friends, who stop by everyday.
It’s been a fun year. Thanks for your support and encouragement. So pull up a chair and have a slice of this delicious cake. No, I didn’t bake this one but I can tell you it’s great.
One of the issues we face as we travel from developed to developing world is matching the ‘always on’ level of connection we’ve come to expect and enjoy. It becomes particularly critical if you plan to be away for longer than a week and you’ve committed to post everyday.
Prior to leaving the US, I researched connectivity options available through the major providers in Jamaica – Digicel, Lime and Claro – and felt confident that the only difficulty I’d have is deciding which company to use.
Last Monday, I set out to get a new phone and SIM – I had misplaced my Jamaica SIM and the professional I paid in London to unlock my Nokia phone damaged it instead. Getting the phone was the easy part.
When I told the sales person that I wanted to purchase a wireless modem, she asked where I lived. She might have seen the look on my face and quickly added that she had to check to see what service was like in my area. I was surprised. According to Digicel, their 4G service was available everywhere.
She tried the modem on their laptop and it fired up instantly. I’d learned from previous experience that getting anything done with a Mac in Jamaica was problematic so I had her try it on my laptop.
Just as I thought, the modem failed. She recommended another, which at about $100, was almost twice the one I wanted to buy. I was ready to buy but they had none at her location.
We drove to the store she said would have it. When I got there, I decided to check with computer technician at a computer store what modem he’d recommend for the Mac. It wasn’t Digicel’s, the one I was trying to find, but Claro’s, the Mexican company that is reportedly eyeing Digicel for purchase.
Luckily for me, Claro was on the floor below but their Mac expert was out and the modem resupply had not yet arrived. It’d be here in about an hour, I was told.
View of the Caribbean Sea from the Montego Bay Convention Center
Since I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was getting closer to 2 p.m., I decided lunch was my priority. After lunch, I called – the modem and technician were both there. But he was doubtful their modem would work properly in my location. The signal would most likely fade or drop entirely, he said, so he advised me not to buy.
I thanked him and made my way to the Digicel store. The modem was in stock. The sales person (and Mac expert) to whom I was directed was there. Again, the modem that was supposed to work with a Mac, didn’t. She tried three different devices and called their technicians to assist but no joy. I left the store near 5 p.m. — no modem and no way to get connected.
When I told my cousin, she said I should use her DSL service. I was able to hook my laptop up but the connection is so slow, it drops every few minutes.
So, unfortunately, I haven’t been able to be online long enough to keep up with all your posts. I do hope to get this sorted out soon as I do miss my ‘always on’ connection.
I guess the best part is that I’ve been reading more and getting to bed earlier!
As you all know, blogging is a solitary thing. You write and read and hope others will appreciate your point of view and decided to follow you on your blogging journey.
It was a real treat to open my mailbox and see that I’ve received an award, not just any award, An Appreciated Follower Award from fellow blogger, Celia at Africa2Asia. Neat, huh? Well, I think so!
And now that I’ve gotten the award, I have a few things to do:
1. Thank the giver. (Thanks Celia!)
2. Pick 5 bloggers to pass the award on to. Let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award
4. Have faith that my followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. Have bloggy fun!
Without further ado and in no particular order, here are the 5 people I’ll bestow the Appreciated Follower Award to. These are talented, eloquent, thoughtful, interesting people whose blogs are worth a read.
Mercury must be retrograde. I have no other explanation for the big and little things that have gone out of control in the last few weeks.
It started with my phone. A few days ago, it started shutting itself off. Then it began producing error messages that technical support has been unable to explain.
Yesterday morning, I woke to find an email from blogger friend, Rhonda, alerting me to a redirect error on my blog. With help from technical support, we fixed it but when I tried to reinstall my blog page, I inadvertently deleted all my posts, everything I’ve written since last year – nearly 300 posts.
Thanks, Rhonda, for alerting me to the redirect error on blog. In fixing it, I inadvertently deleted my content so I have to have it restored. Not sure how long this will take.
Not the kind of thing that I wanted to have happen this week.
Hope to be back up very soon,
Sherry of Colorful Footsteps has just nominated me to participate in the “My 7 Links Project” (Thanks, Sherry!)
Initiated by Tripbase, the My 7 Links Project aims “to unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again.”
I’m very honored that Sherry has nominated me. It was difficult to select just six posts but I hope you’ll like the ones I chose.
Writing to me is like using playdoh. When I write, I play with words, string them together, like a necklace to make beautiful sentences.
Writing to me is like using the color wheel. Nouns are blue, verbs are red, adjectives are indigo, adverbs are orange, prepositions are violet, articles are brown, conjunctions are green, and interjections are yellow.
Writing to me is music. When done right, the words flow together and create harmony.
Writing to me is fun when the words tumble out in exactly the order in which I imagine them.
Writing to me is like drawing pictures with words.
Writing to me is a way to slow down and rationalize my thoughts. Sometimes, jumbled thoughts become untangled; fleeting ideas become anchored to the page.
Writing to me is something I do all day, everyday.
Writing to me is easy. Most times.
Writing to me is like reading out loud, relishing the sounds the words make.
Writing to me is rewriting. Often.
Writing to me is poetry.
Writing to me is, preferably, pen on paper. But it’s never just black and white.
Writing to me like breathing. I don’t know how I’d be if I couldn’t write.
Writing it down - Maynefoto
What does writing mean to you?
Share your thoughts and take a minute to check out what writing means to my other Blog-A-Licious buddies:
My blog buddy, Elizabeth at Mirth and Motivation nominated me for not just one but three blog awards. I’m stoked!
Elizabeth is a blogger I admire and respect. Each of her posts are thoughtful and thought provoking. For her to nominate me for a blog award is an honor.
So which blog awards did Elizabeth nominate me for?
Well, I received the Versatile Blogger Award, the Stylish Blogger Award and the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award.
Each award comes with a few responsibilities.
Send a thank you and link back to the blogger who nominated you.
Share 7 things about yourself.
Pass the award on to 10 Versatile/Irresistibly Sweet/Stylish bloggers.
Contact each blogger that you’ve nominated and tell them about the blog award
Thank you, Elizabeth. You’ve made my day!
Seven things about me?
I’d love to get a role (or be an extra) in the next Bond flick. I’ve seen every Bond movie, many times over but they never get stale. Sean Connery is my favorite Bond; Daniel Craig my second favorite and a worthy successor. All the others – Roger Moore, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan – were just placeholders for Craig, a man who can deliver a punch as effectively as he can receive one.
I daydream of leaving my job and traveling around the world. An around-the-world trek would satisfy the nomad in me. But not just that, it’d allow me to meet people from all over, see and experience different cultures, try different foods.
The only time I’ve bartended was at a wedding. I’d never bartended before but it was fun. The guests were very understanding when I told them it was my first time. (I made sure the drinks were nice and strong.)
My favorite color is red. It’s the color I reach for most often but especially on dreary days. It makes me feel bold, daring, wild.
Being near water soothes me. Whether it’s a lake or a pool or an ocean, there’s something about water that just soothes me.
I used to be a teacher. I’ve taught Spanish to eleven- and twelve-year olds, Math and Reading to at-risk children, and principles of business to adults.
I hate chocolate. It doesn’t matter if it’s white or black, I can smell it a mile away
In no particular order, the Versatile/Stylish/Irresistible Blog Awards go to…..
Drumroll, please!
Colorful Footsteps – Sherry’s planning a solo trip around the world which will hopefully take her to all seven continents.
Totsy – Totsy Mae’s a writer, reader, visual artist, graphic designer and a mom.
The Black Twig – Dahlia’s a bookworm, aspiring writer/traveler, sociology and international relations graduate and blogger
